Chiefs First Round Draft Pick Josh Simmons on His Path to the NFL | Journey Through the Jerseys

Chiefs First Round Draft Pick Josh Simmons on His Path to the NFL | Journey Through the Jerseys

That’s crazy. What in the heck? How did y’all get this stuff? 
They don’t even like I don’t think they give this jersey out at my high school anymore. Skyline. 
If you’re from my city, like that’s crazy. Samoan culture honor is everything. So you want to make 
everybody proud. Hell of a ride in this one, bro. Skyline. This is kind of right around my city 
like where everything started like in terms of like what I wanted to do football player. So 
this 28 I used to play running back. I was like 250 like 6 foot. It was no reason I should 
have been running the ball but size wasn’t something that I I needed any more of. I just 
kept wanting to be like Adrian Peterson, but fell in love with Oline. Don, bro, that’s insane. 
I’ve been thinking this is the OG color, too. No other kid was doing what I was doing, like 
putting in extra work, and I knew I had what it took. So, that’s when I had to mentally kind of 
get get up to speed. Just always laughing. I I did more we did more laughing and playing football. 
Really made me fall in love with just the camaraderie that you can build with it. We would 
play around with our head coach and I remember one time I tried to hit it or like run him over and I 
did good. Like I stood him up and you can tell he tasted it. But yeah, that’s insane. I grew up a 
Raiders fan. I know it’s kind of criminal to say that for the team I play for now. San Diego 
isn’t by any means like horrible in terms of where I’m from, but it’s definitely parts where 
you definitely want to stay away from. I lived in those areas. You know, my mom was smart in 
throwing me into like sports early. That’s that’s what it was. It was just more being locked out 
and having your back against the wall. A lot of people, they don’t make it up here. So, I try to 
put on for my city as as hard as I can, for sure. pops. I went to his alma mater high school. 
So, every time they called me Lil Nell, because that’s my dad’s name, Nelson. And they 
always said like he was the most quickest athletic like everything you wanted in like a athlete 
like he had. So, um obviously they tried to like instill that stuff onto me, but I quickly 
kind of made my own name for sure, especially in high school. So, there was no pressure to grow 
up and play baseball. Uh not I mean I tried it. I couldn’t hit the ball for like at all. Like 
it was not something I was like, “All right, let’s stop doing this cuz it was starting to get 
like silly.” But no, so this is my blood uncle. My mom and obviously the people who are in 
higher-ups in the NFL told me everything I needed to know about him. Their their their stunn 
and shockiness of their face kind of said it all. I remember when I first got my first scholarship 
offer, he was the first one to kind of like reach out and was telling me like what it’s going to 
take, what it’s going to be like. And so culture, you don’t ever want to kind of like honor is 
everything. So you want to make everybody proud, especially at a young age. I was definitely like 
locked in at a very young age, more than probably most kids are even going on these visits, like 
people knew like, “Oh, that is we know who that is.” Stuff like that. So I’m half black and half 
sour, but I was raised by my Samoan side for sure. We’re very family oriented in everything we do. 
So um him reaching out for one was like a big key to me. This definitely sparked the dream a 
lot bigger. Even though my last name is Simmons, I definitely, you know, want people to 
know this uh this second last name to me. Yeah. So, this one was like where I kind of knew 
I could like play in the NFL. People don’t know this, but I was actually homeschooled. So, like 
me coming into high school, literally all I know is football and work out. When I got there, it was 
just really like business-like, like go in there, play football, come home, wake up, and do it 
again. I think my junior year in high school, I was getting like just around like a 
scholarship a day. And uh that was all just cuz my and I didn’t even play my whole like 
junior year in high school. But the fact that I got six games worth and was able to kind of like 
really spark those opportunities was big cuz I I I don’t think my family knew to the degree 
that I could do it, you know, the the way it picked up was kind of quick, especially with 
co and all that stuff. But this is different, man. Like this was kind of like when I knew 
like where my confidence as a football player started to like really like you know like you’re 
walking on the field and like you’re not nervous at all like you know exactly what you’re going 
to do, how are you going to do it. Definitely keep that same confidence pattern how I listen 
to music, how I study, how I prepare and stuff like that. So it definitely started off with this 
right here. The person who wore this before me, Samson New was actually a really good 
football player. like a really like to the point where they were about to stop like 
making this jersey. They didn’t kind of want, you know, just anybody getting this jersey. So, 
it took a lot of work to get the person who was handing out jerseys to get this, but I know 
I had to I had to like show out with it. And that’s kind of what I felt like I was trying to 
do. I’m more surprised. I thought I lost this. This one right here, this is where I learned 
thanks to Coach Day, Coach Fry. about how to be a pro. It was originally 72. Like I always wore 
72 growing up in college. They didn’t have that number in San Diego State. Kind of bounced around 
cuz there’s always like a vet, but 71 for me, you know, obviously when it’s my time to get on the 
field, I’m speaking stuff in existence. There’s a there’s a lot of great football players who 
wear that number. So this laid a great foundation of what it looks like. So me coming from my last 
school before Ohio State, we’re not really playing in January. So it it was more about just kind of 
being the best you could be and then getting what you could out of there. So with me being at Ohio 
State, all I really could do was just look around me and then pick up from the older people. So any 
accolade that offensive lineman could have got, I was aiming for it, working for it in practice, 
like every little thing. So you go down with the injury and probably the biggest game of the season 
to that point. Obviously it’s frustrating, you know, with that camaraderie and that brotherhood, 
you’re able to lean on them and your brothers, you know, still got the job done. So I was, to 
say the least, was very happy. You know, they obviously wanted me to come back. I just I just 
knew I wanted to be the pro. Uh, I think I I had every tendency, every habit like to just be a pro, 
whether it was hitting the playbook, whether it was recovery. Got with the best surgeons, got with 
the best PT people. That way, come time to first kickoff for my team, I’ll be I’ll be ready if my 
name is fell. Kansas City select. There was a few teams that I got a gist of who was going to take 
me and I didn’t know which one it was at all. So after I think around like the 23rd pick, I started 
like, “All right, there’s probably two maybe one team that’ll take me.” Good old Brick my phone and 
then made me a chief. I know Arrowhead is rocking. They said it’s almost louder if not as loud as 
uh Penn State. So that that is a big big claim if you’re a Big 10 fan. So can’t wait. Obviously, 
there’s a lot of vets and stuff like that, but if my name is called, I will definitely make sure 
they did not regret, you know, calling my name.

Offensive tackle Josh Simmons breaks down his journey to the NFL, from playing running back in youth football to winning a national championship with Ohio State before being drafted by the Kansas City Chiefs.

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